Juliana Taimoorazy builds bridge between Assyrians, non-Assyrians

The Assyrian Journal| March 2018 | Photos contributed | By Joe Snell

Chicago, IL – Juliana Taimoorazy is not bashful when it comes to helping Christians in the Middle East. As the founder and president of Iraqi Christian Relief Council (ICRC), her aggressiveness is part of what makes her such a successful leader.

Today, her non-profit emergency humanitarian relief organization has raised millions of dollars for persecuted Christians in Iraq and neighboring countries. She has appeared on national media outlets including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and BBC, and has garnered the attention of many Western aid organizations that had previously shut their doors to Assyrian assistance.

“I started ICRC to work with Americans and non-Assyrians because we need friends outside of our own four walls,” Taimoorazy said.

EARLY INTEREST IN HELPING ASSYRIANS

Juliana grew up in Iran. She was smuggled into Switzerland in 1989, where she spent seven days in a monastery in Zurich before being sent into Germany, seeking asylum in the U.S. embassy. In 1990, she immigrated to the U.S. with refugee status and earned her Masters degree from Northeastern Illinois University.

While running a medical spa in Chicago, she came across a story about women in Afghanistan that were lighting themselves on fire to escape forced marriages. Instead of dying from the burns, however, a number of these women were left with severe scarring.

Juliana noticed that one of the devices at her spa had the ability to heal these burn victims. She contacted the company that manufactured the device and requested they donate products, offering to go to Kabul and train nurses and doctors to use them. Through this experience, Juliana learned that she wanted to help more with the Assyrian cause, particularly in the homeland.

ENTERING THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

Taimoorazy’s rise to the international stage began in a small coffee shop near downtown Chicago, where she sat down to write a letter to God. Taimoorazy remembers the date, July 25, 2007.

That morning, she had met with church leaders from Holy Name Cathedral on Wabash Street. As a member of the large Catholic congregation, she approached a Cardinal after mass and asked blunty, “What is the Catholic church doing to help the Assyrians in Iraq?”

The next day, she received an email asking her to come to the Archdiocese. It was there that she presented a four-point plan for what the Catholic church could do to help Assyrians in Iraq.

“They laughed and let me down easy,” Taimoorazy said. “They said my plan was great but it’s not going to leave these four walls, so why don’t you start a ministry that teaches Americans about who you are and what your needs are.”

Disappointed, she left the meeting and walked into a coffee shop, where she wrote a letter to God and asked for direction.

“I said, ‘Lord, I don’t know what you’re asking me to do, this is so scary,” Taimoorazy said. “I’ve never done this before, but if you’re asking me to do this it means it is for your greater glory. Bring me the right people and I will do this.”

Taimoorazy still has a copy of that letter, and refers to it whenever she needs a reminder of the great people God has brought into her life.

“Whoever I meet is an answer to that one prayer,” Taimoorazy said. She published the letter last year for ICRC’s ten-year anniversary.

Juliana’s letter to God

STARTING THE IRAQI CHRISTIAN RELIEF COUNCIL

ICRC started in 2007, shortly after Taimoorazy wrote her letter to God. She called her close friend, Romel Benjamin, and the two put a small team together to begin providing aid solely in Iraq.

Initially, it was tough for her team to receive support from American organizations.

“The Evangelicals would say, ‘Are you really Christian? Were you baptized as children and have you accepted Jesus with your heart?'” Taimoorazy said. “The Catholics would say, ‘Aren’t you used to this persecution? Why don’t you figure it out, why don’t you just pick up and leave?’ A lot of people were not interested. But in 2014, with the savagery that ISIS put on display, America and the West woke up.”

ICRC has six board members and three advisors from Chicago, Virginia, and Rome. Although the organization began working exclusively in Iraq, now they help Assyrians across the world including in Jordan, the United States, Australia, and France. A majority of the aid goes through the Assyrian Aid society and Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena in Northern Iraq.

Today, Juliana is a UN Delegate to Geneva, an advisor on the advisory council for the Simon Wiesethal in the Midwest, and a senior fellow at The Philos Project, a leadership community that promotes Christian engagement in the Middle East.

Last October, she already received the title of ‘Dame Commander’ with the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (SMOTJ), an international organization incorporated in the United States that promotes Christianity through charity and civic actions.

Juliana believes that Assyrians need a consistent presence in political epicenters like D.C. and also need to start thinking more long term.

“The old way doesn’t work anymore,” she said. “Enough of thinking Assyria was great 5,000 years ago. Yes it was great. But what am I doing to make it great again?”

My name is David Fischler. I’m an Evangelical Presbyterian pastor, and the chairman of the Board of the ICRC. I am blessed to be able to call Juliana my dear friend and sister in Christ. I first met her and heard about the work of ICRC at our General Assembly in 2015, and was cut to the heart by the thought of what our Assyrian brothers and sisters in the Lord were experiencing at the hands of ISIS. Since then, I’ve been doing all I can to get the word out to Christians in the United States, who need to raise their voices on behalf of their fellow believers and give all they can of their prayers, efforts, time, and abilities to help them return to their homeland. Thank you, Assyrian Journal and Joe Snell, for this article.

Dallas, TX – “I started playing soccer in my village. It was a reason to get together as Assyrians every week. We would play soccer and then go eat or hang out. I eventually played for the Assyrian club in Urmi. When I moved to San Jose, I helped found the Infinite Sports Association. Now in Dallas, it’s funny that there are a lot of empty soccer fields that you don’t get elsewhere. We used to pay a lot of money to get a couple hours to play on this type of field. In San Jose, for two hours we would pay almost $250 and here in Dallas this field is free with beautiful grass, free goals, everything free.”

Chicago, IL – “I grew up in a bad country and couldn’t talk about anything, even our flag because you were always scared of the government. A lot of people don’t know how this flag is special for people. That’s why we do this in our yard, because we want people to recognize that if we didn’t have this American flag then we wouldn’t be sitting in this house today. People fought for this flag, for this freedom so we can sit here together and talk about being both Assyrian and American. You lose one of your identities if you don’t.”

Dallas, TX – “Having grown up in the West, one of the positives is that my girls have the ability to empower themselves. For me, raising girls here is similar to raising boys. I’m going to teach them what I know, whether it’s science, engineering, you name it, it doesn’t make a difference to me their gender. There is no glass ceiling from my perspective, I want them to be as successful as they can be.”

Chicago, IL – “I started vlogging to have a more highly produced version of an archive of my life. This year’s vlog of the Assyrian convention is footage from a lot of different things. It’s both the pool parties and something more in-depth and cultural, so a mix of both. I also did a lot of things that doing a vlog for wouldn’t do justice, like the youth summit. You have to be there for that, it’s not the same to see it, you have to be there and interact with people. One day I’m going to look back and have all of these memories nicely produced of what I did at this convention. I encourage everyone to do it.”

Dallas, TX – “With motherhood, you first think of all of those happy times of sitting down and playing and going out. But it’s more about giving all of who you are, everything you have, plus more. When you think to yourself, ‘I’ve given everything I have,’ and then they wake up at night one more time and you say, ‘I have to do this again, I have to give more after I’ve already given everything.’ It’s the hardest job and it takes everything out of you, but it’s worth it and you would do it all over again when you see them happy.”

Chicago, IL – “I never get tired of traveling because I travel for my people and enjoy accomplishing something for my nation. I also love people watching. That’s why I go to the airport an hour earlier, just to sit around and watch everyone and listen to my podcasts. I love people and I get joyful when I hear them laughing. We need more happiness in the world. We don’t see it anymore. Everyone’s head is down, everyone is looking at their phones, everyone is so intense. There is so much conflict in the world, you don’t see anyone laugh anymore. So when I do see those glimpses of joy and happiness, it makes me so happy.”